Connecticut's Moriah Jefferson, left, and Cincinnati's Dayeesha Hollins, right, chase a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

STORRS — In another universe, a 33-point victory in which the opposition was held to 34 points and shot under 25 percent from the field would be celebrated as a rousing defensive success.

In the world of UConn women's basketball, however, a game like the Huskies' 67-34 victory over Cincinnati is reviled as a disjointed offensive mess that needs immediate fixing.

The Huskies shot only 41 percent from the field including a season-worst 20-percent (5-for-25) effort from behind the 3-point line. They set season lows for points and assists, and for only the second time this season had more turnovers than assists.

"I think everyone on the team obviously has something that they wanted to do better in the game," Breanna Stewart said. "So I think it is that feeling of being unsatisfied. You want to play better. You want to play as well as you can every single night. When you don't, that is always in the back of your mind, even if you do win, because we are competitive people here."

The Huskies obviously played well defensively as they forced Cincinnati into 21 turnovers and applied enough pressure that the Bearcats took a lot of difficult shots resulting in a 13-for-53 shooting night.

By the same token, however, Cincinnati packed five players into the paint and forced the Huskies to make outside shots. Too often they did so without moving the ball enough to get a better shot.

"There was no flow to the offense," said coach Geno Auriemma. "It is funny, because we spend probably as much time as anybody does trying to make sure we do have that kind of movement, that kind of flow."

Auriemma was discouraged that after scoring the first 16 points of the game, the Huskies lost their rhythm. Part of the problem was that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis picked up her third foul just 5:34 into the game.

With her out, the offense struggled as the Huskies missed 18 of their final 23 shots of the first half.

"We just kind of got stagnant," said Mosqueda-Lewis, who scored all seven of her points in the first five minutes. "It seemed like we weren't really sure where we wanted to go and when we tried to dribble we wanted to make things happen that weren't there. So we've just got to make sure that we're patient and wait for the screens be set and for the offense to get going."

Auriemma took part of the blame, saying he substituted too liberally, because the reserve players had a couple really good days of practice leading into the game so he wanted to reward them.

"Obviously that is not going to happen again," he said. "That kind of got us away from what we were doing and then we kind of got stuck and then we stayed stuck virtually for the rest of the half."

UConn scored just 33 points in the first half. They went on a 16-3 run early in the second half, but still never looked great.

For long stretches, Cincinnati's Jeanise Randolph (15 points, 10 rebounds) looked like the best player on the floor.

"Mostly, I think we were kind of shocked weren't hitting some shots," Hartley said. "It was like ones we normally make, and I feel like this well in practice we shot really, really well. So I think when we didn't make them it was like, 'Why aren't we making any shots?'"

Regardless of the reason, Dolson said it has to get better.

"We've got to have guys, myself included, that can step up make a shot and make that contagious more than the missing or making mistakes," said Dolson, who had seven points and nine rebounds. "We've just got to kind of step up and have leaders out there."

"The thing that I keep going back to is that if I had only played six players, the things that you saw that weren't really great would have never happened," Auriemma said. "But when you are trying to play nine players, it is going to look ugly at times because not everybody fits with everybody else and not everybody is in tune with what we are trying to do when we are trying to do it."

Auriemma expects the Huskies will steadily improve moving forward. It's just a matter of figuring out roles and the proper combinations to play now that he has a full roster with Mosqueda-Lewis and Morgan Tuck healthy.

"Instead of getting all the stuff done in November and early December where we have our nine guys and know who is doing what and how they are doing it, now we are kind of like trying to make up for lost time," Auriemma said, "and you can see it the past couple of games."

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